Albums for photographs or the like



J. G. PETERS ALBUMS FOR PHOTOGRAPHS OR THE LIKE Jan. 21, 1969 Sheet Filed Jan. 16, 1967 FIG. I

FIG. 3

INVENTOR. JAMES G. PETERS ATTORNEY Jan. 21, 1969 J. G. PETERS ALBUMS FOR PHOTOGRAPHS OR THE LIKE Sheet' Filed Jan. 16, 1967 m mE T T mE vP p m G s J E M A J Y B 6 v n F m 8 2 5 l 2 m u j m M m l" \HK/ 7 \QETW. H} V 6 w H v M L H F W m ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,422,557 ALBUMS FOR PHOTOGRAPHS OR THE LIKE James G. Peters, 1 Penrose Lane, Broadmoor, Colorado Springs, Colo. 80906 Filed Jan. 16, 1967, Ser. No. 609,577 U.S. Cl. 40-158 Int. Cl. G09f l/10, 11/06; B42f /02 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A photograph album is provide-d with a plurality of movable horizontal fastening bars for gripping a row of photographs by their tops and bottoms, and releasable means securing pairs of each fastening bars together permitting removal of an entire row of photographs intact. Means are provided for fastening the negative behind its print.

sheet which may or may not be a looseleaf sheet in the 7 album. Such a system, of course, requires four corner tabs per photograph. Another type of album not so frequently used is the folded acetate sheet forming a clear pocket in which photographs or the like may be inserted, and usually the folded sheets are removable from the album. Such acetate pockets generally have no means for securing photographs therein. As a general rule, albums of this type utilize a photograph of approximately the same size as the pocket in the folded acetate sheet. These albums are either unsatisfactory for removal of prints or are not at all satisfactory for use with different sizes of photographs or sheets of material. Furthermore, with the glued-on corners placed on a sheet of album paper, change of position or a change in the size of print is only accomplished by removal of the glued-on corners and adding new ones. Removal of the corners generally destroys the same.

According to the present invention I have provided an improved album for photographs or like sheet material arranged with removable and adjustable means for holding the photographs or sheet material in simply changeable positions on the sheet without destroying the holding means. The invention, also, includes means for the removal of a series of photographs held on a sheet in the album 'in such a series and without removal of the sheet from the album. Variable means are provided for easy placement of different sizes of photographs on a sheet of an album with means for removal of some or all of the photographs from the sheet. Additionally, the invention includes means for the placement of the negative of the print adjacent to, and generally behind, the print taken from the negative, including means for holding a series of slides in such an album.

Included among the objects and advantages of the present invention is to provide an album for the fast and easy placement of photographs or sheet material in the album and the removal of the same therefrom.

Another object of the invention is to provide means for holding a plurality of a series of photographs in a row on a sheet either in full view or overlapped, and for easy insertion and removal of the same.

Another object of the invention is to provide means for mounting the negative of the print immediately adjacent to such print in the album for easy location and removal of the negative from the album.

A further object of the invention is to provide means Patented Jan. 21, 1969 for securing various sizes of sheet material on album sheets without the necessity of glues, adhesives and the like.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention may be readily ascertained by referring to the following description and appended illustrations in which:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an album sheet utilizing the fastening means according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a detailed view of a portion of a sheet of an album utilizing a holder of the invention for overlapping a series of held photographs;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the holding means of the invention, taken along section lines 33 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a partial plan view of a modified form of the invention;

FIG. 5 is a partial view of an album sheet illustrating the invention holding slides on such a sheet;

FIG. 6 is a partial plan view of a still further modified form of the invention holding overlapping photographs by two corners thereof; and

FIG. 7 is another modified form of the invention for holding photographs on an album sheet of a character similar to that of FIG. 1.

In the illustration of FIG. 1 a sheet 10, arranged for fastening in an album by means of apertures 12 along the left border thereof, has mounted along each edge a plastic closure member 14 on the left edge and a similar closure member 16 along the right-hand edge. The closure members 14 and 16 are half of such closure, commonly referred to as a plastic zipper or plastic slide fastener. As shown in FIG. 3 the plastic closure member 16 in cludes an extending tab 18 which is adhered to the sheet 10 by means of an adhesive or the like and it includes a pair of raised undulating ridges 20 and 22 forming tracks 24 and 26, respectively. A similar arrangement is mounted on the opposite side of the sheet at 14, and generally with the members reversed forming a mirror image of that of 16.

A series of three photographs labeled 30a, 30b and 300, shown in phantom lines to indicate the positioning, are mounted on the sheet 10 by means of spaced upper and lower holders 32 and 33. The holders 32 and 33 are two strips of rigid plastic sealed together along an edge, forming a slot into which the photographs may be inserted. The upper holder has a turned-up end 35 to aid in insertion of the photograph. The ends of the holders 32 and 33 have secured thereto a portion of the other half of the plastic zipper, being 34 at the right end and 36 at the left end. The closure portion 34, FIG. 3, includes a tab 37 which is attached to the holder 32 and includes two undulating, downwardly extending ridge portions 38 and 39 forming tracks 40 and 41, respectively. The tracks 40 and 41 accommodate the ridges 22 and 20, respectively, and releasably secure the two parts together. The parts are secured together merely by positioning them one above the other and pressing together. An extension 44 on the half 34 includes tracks 45 and 46 and a short extending tab 47 therefrom. The tracks are provided between the ribs 48 and 49 to form another portion of another joined closure member. A temporary attaching member 50, which includes ridges 51 and 52 with corresponding tracks therebetween and a manipulating tab extension 53 provides means for securing the upper and lower holders together so that the photographs may be secured in the holders when not in the closure attached to the sheet, thus the whole series may be lifted intact to or from the sheet. The temporary connector section 50 may, also, be use-d for securing one end of the holders together for lifting one side of the photographs in the holders (similar to turning a page) or it may be used for removing the holders and photographs as a unit so that all three photographs may be taken from the sheet at the same time. The same connector or a similar one may, also, be used at the opposite end for tabs 36, and when two such temporary connectors are used, the holder system for holding the photographs may be removed from the sheet with the holder maintained at a predetermined spacing.

As shown in FIG. 1, a pair of holders 55 and 56 may be mounted, in a similar fashion to the holders 32 and 33 described for the photographs, for supporting negatives directly under the photographs. The pair of holder bars 55 and 56 are provided with a portion of a plastic zipper 57 and 58, respectively, at one end and 59 and 60, respectively, at the opposite end. A negative 62 may be placed in the holder bars directly underneath a photograph 62a, and in a similar manner the negative 63 placed below a photograph 63a mounted in holders thereabove. In this manner the negatives for the particular photographs may be placed immediately below the photographs on the sheet and retained in position even though the photographs are removed. Thus, the user of the device may keep the negatives in an easily accessible. position below the photographs. Where desired, a connector fastener member 65 may be used to fasten the ends of the parts 59 and 60 at one end and a similar fastener member 66 may be used to fasten the other two ends 57 and 58 together to maintain the holder bars 55 and 56 in spaced position, securing the negatives therein. It is seen that the negatives may be easily removed without removal of the photographs thereabove by releasing the fastener at the ends and drawing the whole arrangement out from under the photographs. The holder bars, which are similar to the holder bars 32 and 33, may be folded-back pieces of stiff material, such as cellulose acetate or a plastic which provides a secure grip on the negatives. Further, an acetate sheet folded to form a pocket may be used, or a sheet of paper with a clear cover may be used for holding the negatives.

As shown in FIG. 2, by using holder bars of stiff material which securely holds one edge of a photograph, the photographs may be overlapped on a sheet. A sheet 70 is provided with a holder strip 71 at one side and a holder 72 at the opposite side. A holder bar 73, which is a piece of stiff material folded back on itself to provide a clamp action on photographs 74 and 75 have secured to one end thereof a fastener part 76 and a fastener part 77 at the opposite end. The photographs may be secured in the bar by inserting one edge into the folded material and it is secured in position by the gripping action of the bar. A similar bar 78 with fastener parts 79 and 80 at opposite ends may be placed closely adjacent the bar 73 to provide an overlap of photographs 81 and 82. The fastener parts are merely pressed into the strips to provide releasable fastening. Thus, a series of photographs may be overlapped on a sheet and the lower photographs are easily viewed by merely lifting the upper overlapped photographs.

A modified arrangement of the photograph holder is shown in FIG. 4 where a sheet 85 is provided with a portion of a fastener 86 extending along one edge and a similar portion extending along the opposite edge (not shown), but is such as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The top layer of photographs may be secured in bars 87 and 88, and the outer edge of each fastener half is secured together by means of a connector 89, similar to the connector shown in FIG. 1. By having the left-hand side of the photograph secured to the fastener on that side, the photograph may be turned like a sheet of paper in a notebook. In this instance, the photograph 90 is secured in the bars 87 and 88 and the ends of the bars secured together by the temporary connector section 89. A lower photograph 91 is secured in a lower bar 92 and an upper bar 93, each having a fastener half and these are secured together by a temporary connector section 95 which permits the photograph to be held together in the bars and the unit lifted, similar to a page. In a similar manner, other overlapped photographs may be mounted in bars and the bars held together by a connector strip to provide a series of overlapped photographs on a sheet, each photograph which may be lifted and turned like a sheet.

Negatives, for example 35 mm. transparency framed negatives, may be mounted side by side in strips mountable on a sheet, such as shown in FIG. 5, for showing through a projector without removal of a slide from the strip. In this instance, a sheet has fastener halves 101 affixed to one side and 102 to the opposite side. The halves are made in accordance with the fastener of FIG. 3. The negatives are held in a strip by a length of two halves of a fastener 104 secured by its ends to fastener parts 105 and 106, holding the top edge of the negatives therebetvveen. A similar length of two halves of a fastener mounted on the bottom halves of the parts 105 and 106 secure the bottom edges of the negatives therebetween. In the case of fastener 104, it may be convenient to secure the bottom part of the fastener to each of the side fastener parts 105 and 106, leaving the top portion free. The same may be done with the other fastener holding the bottoms of the negatives. In this manner the negatives may be placed in a line on the two bottom fastener parts and the tops positioned and pressed into place, holding the negatives therebetween. This permits removal and/or insertion of a negative in the strip without moving the rest. Also, one of the upper or lower fasteners may be a folded-back piece of plastic forming a slot and the other a fastener. With the negatives in place, i.e., the upper and lower fastener secured, the ends 105 and 106 may be removed from the fastener parts 101 and 102 and the strip of negative removed. The negatives are held in place by the upper and lower fasteners. The fasteners useful for holding the negatives are single closure fasteners such as used on the ends of holding strips 73 and 78 of FIG. 2. The top member of the fastener is removable from the bottom member and a small tab (similar to tab 47 of FIG. 3) provides sufficient overlap on the negatives to hold them in place. In a similar manner a series of slides 109 may be secured to the sheet and a similar set of slides secured as shown at 110. In place of the fasteners, an acetate sheet with folded-over top and bot-tom edges, leaving a width slightly wider than the negatives, may be used for securing just the edge of each slide under the folded-back portions of the top and bottom of the sheet. The acetate provides means for removing the strip of negatives and for projecting the transparencies or the slides through a projector without removal from the package. However, a paper or other opaque holder, with fastener portions on the ends, may be used for the slides, merely securing them in position so that they could be readily identified from the position on the page.

A modified form of the photograph holder is illustrated in FIG. 6 where a sheet 112 is provided with a series of spaced-apart horizontal fastener parts 113, 114, etc. running down the left side of the page and a similar series of parts 115 and 116 extending down the right side of the sheet. A sheet of folded acetate 117 having a fastener portion 118 secured to the left side thereof and a similar portion 119 secured tothe right side thereof provides means for securing a photograph 120 therein and for holding the photograph on the sheet. By means of the horizontal fastener sections a series of such photographs may be mounted on the sheet in overlapped position, and depending on the size of the acetate pocket one or more photographs may be placed in the pocket. Since the bottom edges of the photographs are loose, they may be raised for viewing the photo-graphs which are overlapper, in the manner of a stenos pad. Also, the width of the fastener parts (113, 1 14, etc.) may be varied to accommodate different sizes of acetate pockets.

As shown in FIG. 7, a photograph may be frictionally held in a holder bar 126 at the top and a holder bar 127 at the bottom. Each holder bar is made of stiff material, folded back along itself to provide a tight grip on the edge of sheet material placed therebetween. To aid the insertion of the sheet material into the bar, the lower side of the bar 128 is wider and longer than the upper side, and the edge of the upper side 129 may be turned up slightly to provide for easy insertion of the sheet material into the bar. The same arrangement is used for the lower bar 127. Each bar has secured thereto a portion of the fastener which is arranged for the press fit with the other half of the fastener attached to the sheet. In this case, a fastener 130 is provided at the right side of the bar 126 and a fastener portion 131 is provided at the left side thereof. With this arrangement a number of smaller sized photographs may be used in the bars or, as shown, one large photograph placed between two of the bars on the sheet.

The fastener, being a soft resilient plastic, is easily pressed together and the undercut rails and grooves provide a sure holding means even with fairly rough handling. Also, as shown, the fastener portions may be placed in various positions on the sheet to provide a variety of mounting methods for a variety of sizes or shapes of photographs. This provides versatility in mounting photographs on sheets for optimum usability of the photographs, as well as the negatives for the photographs. The invention, also, provides means for mounting photographs in a particular arrangement for attachment to a sheet. Thus, a series of photographs or the negatives may be mounted in a holder prior to the holder being mounted on the sheet, and of course photographs mounted on the sheet may be readily removed at the desire of the user. In each instance the frames for the photographs are arranged for complete exposure or for overlapped arrangement on each sheet. Th holder bars may be arranged for accepting writing so that space is provided for a written description for each photograph or negative. Where the acetate pockets are used for the photographs or the negatives, the photographs or negatives are safe from dust or scratches. The fastener halves are arranged so as to provide a hinge at each end when connected with the other portion of the fastener mounted on the sheet, thus providing means for overlapping of photographs or negatives while retaining easy viewability of the mounted material.

While the invention has been illustrated by reference to a particular embodiment, there is no intent to limit the spirit or the scope of the invention to the precise details so set forth except as defined in the following claims.

I claim:

1. A photograph album comprising:

(1) a sheet of material arranged for insertion in an album;

(2) a first at least a pair of lengths of plastic fastener halves secured to said sheet in spaced-apart relation;

(3) means for holding photographs for viewing in the album; and

(4) a second at least a pair of lengths of the other portion of said plastic fastener halves attached to said means for holding photographs in position to mate with said fastener halves secured to said sheet, whereby pressing said second pair of lengths onto said first pair of lengths said second pair of fastener halves are secured to said sheet material and said means for holding photographs is temporarily secured to said sheet of material.

2. A photograph album according to claim 1 wherein said first pair of lengths of plastic fastener halves are arranged vertically of a sheet, spaced apart and adjacent opposed edges thereof, said said second at least a pair of lengths of plastic fastener halves are substantially shorter than said first pair.

3. A photograph album according to claim 2 wherein said means for holding a photograph includes an upper and a lower member, both holding a respective edge of a photograph therebetween, and a short second length of plastic fastener half is secured to each end of the upper and lower members for temporarily securing the same to said first at least a pair of plastic fastener lengths.

4. A photograph album according to claim 1 wherein a plurality of photographs are mounted in holding means, each including at least a pair of said second lengths of plastic fastener halves for temporarily securing the same in overlapped position on said sheet.

5. A photograph album according to claim 1 wherein a plurality of pairs of first lengths of plastic fastener halves are mounted horizontally on said sheet material in close proximity to each other, and each of a series of said photograph holding means has a pair of lengths of plastic fastener halves secured adjacent the ends thereof in horizontal alignment for positioning on opposed lengths of said pairs of first lengths of plastic fastener halves.

6. A photograph album according to claim 1 wherein said first pair of lengths of plastic fastener halves are arranged vertically of a sheet and adjacent the edge thereof, at least one of said second pair of lengths of plastic fastener halves attached to said means for holding photographs includes an attached fastener half extending laterally therebeyond, and a length of plastic fastener ha-lf arranged to be temporarily connected to said extending portions.

7. A photograph album according to claim 1 wherein said photograph holding means is a clear, transparent sheet folded back on itself forming an open-ended pocket and said second pair of plastic fastener halves are mounted on the top corners thereof for temporarily securing said pocket on said sheet material.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,183,370 5/1916 Garfield 129-20 2,677,910 5/1954 Morgan 40l58 3,091,046 5/1963 Engelstein et al. 40-102 3,226,845 1/1966 Ausnit 3548 XR EUGENE R. CAPOZIO, Primary Examiner.

WILLIAM GRIEB, Assistant Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R. 

